A Big Day At Our House

Today was a big day at our house.    Upon arrival of my morning run, Addy greets me at the door jumping up and down because a butterfly had emerged from its chrysalis.  We greeted our new little friend and inspected the beautiful wings that were drying.  

I told the kids to get ready for the day because we needed to go get flowers for the bottom of the butterfly net.   In the hour that it took us to get ready for the day, we had two more butterflies come out of their chrysalises.   We have spent the rest of the day observing the butterflies in the various stages of opening and drying their wings, and to our surprise, they have a beautiful orange and black coloring on the top of their wings. 

As if the day could not get any better, I came home to four letters from our Compassion children in our mailbox!   I absolutely love these cream colored envelopes that are slipped in among the other mail.  They are our connection to a life in another part of the world.   A life that we are praying for and have come to love.  

It is always interesting to read what the kids have found to write to us about.   Sometimes it is just about the weather.   Other times, we get more information about them, and these are the letters I treasure close to my heart.  

Our little girl in Honduras asks Mark about his birthday and how he celebrated his "completion" of another year.   She asks about E and Addy's swimming classes because she wishes she could take a class like that.   She has received a diploma of honor for good marks in her class.   Asking about my uncle who has cancer, she says she has been praying for him daily and cannot wait for the letter saying that he has been healed by God.  (Which he has come through his treatments and is doing well.)  She continues to pray that God will make her dream come true, her dream that she can see us in person and give us a hug.   She knows that we have one dream in common. 

Our young man from India is a faithful writer with letters in our mailbox about once a month.  This month we got a letter and a thank you note from him.   He continues to pray for us daily and thanks us for the birthday money we sent him in January because he used it to buy clothes and bathing soap.  This makes him happy because he didn't have any.   My heart cries out for this young man and my prayers continue to go up for him as he is doing well in school despite the poverty.   I pray that he can beat the odds and make a life for himself. 

Our newest young lady in the Philippines writes to thank us for the letter of introduction and information about our family.   She asks us to thank the kids for their pictures they drew and to let them know that she thinks they are very cute. 










These letters bring a connection for me.   I know how much I look forward to reading them and to having them in my hands.   I am so glad that God has brought the seven young people into our lives.   Perhaps in the future we will make it to the six countries that they all live in so that I can personally give each of them a hug and let them know how much they are loved. 

Our Back Yard Project

When we began tearing out bushes in our back yard, I had no idea that it would take us almost two years to finish the project.    Now, we are nearly finished, just putting some finishing touches.   We have promised each other that we would not purchase a lot to fill the patio until we see how it lives, so there will still be more additions, but for now, we are excited about the results and wanted to share them with you.

Here is the progression starting in July 2009:

November Reading

Our family project continues with Adventure stories this month.  If you missed the post explaining our project check it out here.   Last month's genre was Historical Fiction.  As a family we read stories from fourteenth century China to Texas just prior to becoming a state, from Eastern America in 1904 to South Carolina during World War II.   At the end of the month we shared what we had learned about the time period, what our favorite part of the book was, and rated the book on a 1 to 5 star rating. 

This month the genre is Adventure.   The reading continues! 

A Family Project

We had conferences at school on Thursday night.   This was a goal setting conference for each of the kids for the year.  We heard glowing reports of both kids from their teachers, which always makes these kinds of meetings fun for us.   As a result of E's goal setting conference, our family is on an eight month project that I am kind of excited about. 

Our family is a group of avid readers.   If you look into anyone of our bedrooms, you will find a stack of books beside the bed containing the book we are currently reading, and a pile of books that is on our "to read" list.   Trips to the library are frequent with large stacks of books coming and going.


The goal for E is to expand beyond the magic and fantasy books that he has been absorbed in.   His teacher would like him to explore the other wonderful authors that have written books.    Mark and I, loving to read like we do, are both thought this was a great goal.   We as a family are going to take the next eight months to expand our horizons and read from some different genres that we don't generally read from. 

Eight different genres written on pieces of paper were drawn from a cup to determine the schedule.   Each month we have a new genre and a new book.   We each read a different book, and one that we have not read before.   At the end of the month, we will all talk about the book we have read and compare notes.  

For the month of October the genre is Historical Fiction.   Basically the rule for this month was that the story had to take place in the past, be fiction, and of course no magic or fantasy.  :)
 

Mark is reading The Red Ripper by Kerry Newcomb 
I am reading The Kite Rider by Geraldine Mccaughrean
E is reading one of the Bobbsey Twins books
Addy is reading some of the American Girl books.

Why I Love Him So

There are many things I love about Mark.   This man that I love can read books at speeds that make me dizzy.   The craziest part of it all is the recall that he has after reading.   If you ask him about a book that he read five years ago, chances are pretty good that he can remember the book and tell you quite a bit about it.   His love for music, all genres, boarders on obscene.  (In a good way.)   If you mention an artist or group that you like, he can usually mention two or three others that you might like that are similar.   Always perusing newspapers, news sites, and blogs, he can have a conversation on almost any topic brought up. 

As a great problem solver, he is successful in his career and makes life easier at home when I have something that I just can't get resolved.  He is a great father and husband.   He is great with the kids, always encouraging their interests.   He is always patient with the many questions that come when E is learning about new technology or talking about sports.   He is ready to listen to a new song that Addy has written or look at the new masterpieces she has created with her art supplies.   Mark is a very helpful and supportive husband.   Whenever I get a whim to try or do something new, he is right along side me.  

Another thing I love about my husband is his willingness to keep after a project.   Upon moving into our house four years ago, we found out that our master bath was in desperate need of a re-do.  There was no option, it had to be fixed.   Since then we have repaired and replaced most of the plumbing in this house.   My dear husband who is not at all a fan of plumbing has been constantly working on replacing leaky pipes, toilets, and faucets.   You name it, he has either fixed it or given it a good attempt.  Last night our toilet started to leak, this being the third toilet in our three bathroom house that has needed to be repaired.   As I attempt to help by handing tools, keeping dry towels on hand, and keeping the kids busy and out of the way, I am so thankful for this man who goes into these projects with a sense of dread, but usually comes through them successful. 

Recipes

Always needing something to do to occupy my free minutes, I am usually either working on a project or finding out what the next one will be.  Just because I am in the middle of a project, it doesn't mean that I have a lot of free time on my hands.  Actually a it will often happen when I am balancing many things and have very little free time.   Possibly it is because at these times I need something else to think about rather than the busyness going on around me, or possibly it is my way of accomplishing something when there is not much that can be "completed."   Whatever the reason, I am now in the middle of a project.   I knew it would be a lot of work, but I think today I realized how much work this project really is going to be. 

If you haven't guessed from this blog, or as a friend on Facebook, I love to bake.   Cooking brings a great deal of pleasure as well, but not like baking.   However due to the fact that I cannot eat everything I bake and maintain some semblance of a diet, cooking is a close second.   Cooking is also something I can do with Mark.   He and I love to be in the kitchen together creating a meal.   The satisfaction that comes when the meal is on the table is something we both enjoy.   Being that we both love to create things, we are always on the look out for new recipes.   Mark is always bringing home new cookbooks to peruse from the library and also watches the newspaper and magazines.   I get my resources from blogs and the internet.  In addition, there are always the family favorite recipes from when we were growing up that get mixed in as well.  

What has occurred as a result of these means of acquiring recipes is that we now have what feels like a multitude of cookbooks and a stack of papers that we never go through. Once we find a recipe we like, we will often say, "We need to make that again."   But, because of our current method of keeping recipes, it tends to fall to the bottom of the stack and never to be made again.  Another problem is sharing recipes.   If a friend or relative asks for a recipe, I have to search for the recipe and type it up, and often I never get around to this.   It is not intentional to forget, it just happens. 

My project is that I am going to create an online database of recipes that are all filed and organized so that I can access them more conveniently, and when someone wants a copy of the recipe, I can e-mail it right from the database.   (I love it!) 

With a couple of days already invested in the project, I now have these

and these

to go through which will be the most time intensive part of the project.  

Spring Cleaning in July

My goal is to do a thorough cleaning every spring and ever fall.   Typically in spring it naturally happens because I am tired of being indoors and I love opening the house and "airing" it out after many months of breathing what feels like recycled air.   Something happened this spring however, and my spring cleaning did not happen until this past week. 

The past two days have been filled with cleaning and moving furniture.   I love to move furniture because it forces me to clean in places I don't normally clean when I am in a hurry.   It also gives me new things to look at without spending money, a trick I learned from my mom.  So, our family room and living room are now rearranged. 

Joining in the spirit, the kids wanted their rooms rearranged.   Very supportive of this idea,  it meant that dressers had to be cleared off, under beds mucked out, and the dreaded project of sorting through what is worth keeping and what is not. 

Unfortunately I didn't take before and after pictures of each room.   The kids loved sleeping in their "new" beds last night, and Pix, he is really liking the new arrangement as his job of family guardian is so much easier now that there is a couch in front of the window.   He doesn't have to balance on the arm of the couch to watch the street.   :) 

Before

 After

Cleaning Day

Today was not the normal cleaning day.   We cleaned the outside of the house today.   The siding and the shutters.   Weird?   Maybe so, but I feel so much better now that it is done.

When grilling on the deck, right by the house, the siding has turned black.   I thought it was going bad and that it would have to be replaced someday.   My dad said that all that was needed was to clean the siding.   Easy enough, I can do that, (of course with the help of Mark, I can do that).

Before jumping to any conclusions about my being obsessive about cleaning, let me tell you this is the beginning of a bigger project.   I am on a mission to give our house a face lift.   The gray siding will be the base obviously, and we build from there.   We are still in the researching stage, so I don't want to give all of the details away, but stay tuned as I am hoping this project is able to proceed this summer.

Anyway, we gathered all of our cleaning supplies and started what I thought would be an all afternoon project.

Everyone was very excited to help.   I love it when the kids join in on the projects and we work together as a family.

Mark was a trooper and cleaned most of the house due to the height of the house and because that is just who he is.   He will do pretty much anything I ask him to do.   What a great guy!

We were all got wet and dirty from the project.

However, things moved along more quickly than I had anticipated, so with a few supplies, a couple of hours, and a lot of elbow grease, we have a finished project for today.